I'm BACK!
So I am about to pack up my computer to move into our new apartment. Before the brown out I thought I would quickly post something about my workshop at Haystack. First I have to say thank you to all of the people that made it possible for me to go. Who ever that was, thank you.
Holy shit. It was pretty awesome. I have to admit that I was kind of blown away. The surrounding landscape is so fantastic it almost seems fake. I mean it. I really had never seen anything like it in my life. Moss covered bolders to one side, beaches to the other, seals and porpoises, all the while the soothing white noise of ocean waters puts you to sleep every night. Really....it seemed fake. They should totally film a fantasy film there. With unicorns and elves bouncing around. Crazy.
I had about eight students (including my TA the awesome Tanya Crane) Six of them were work-study. I tried to cram in as many demos as possible without over loading them. They all had KP duty so I didn't want to torture them.
There is a Digi Fab Lab on the island run by two MIT graduate students. I had a lot of fun "nerding" it up on their shopbot CNC router and talking to them about all of the fun stuff/research they were doing at the MIT media lab.
There was this strange ying yang thin happening. Everything at Haystack is uphill and the food is pretty amazing. On one hand I felt like I was getting my daily dose of exercise going up and down steps about ten times a day, on the other hand I kept stuffing my face with all the food and delicious cookies and cakes. I am not sure but I think that it all balanced out. I don't think I lost any weight but I for sure got about tens miles clocked in on the stair master.
Truthfully meals were a bit hairy considering I have a serious shellfish allergy and there was lobster everywhere. It was like seeing big red skull and cross bones everywhere.
One of the highlights of the trip was going to Liberty Tool. It was kind of a tool junkies wet dream. TOOLS EVERYWHERE!!! Also there was a cool tool museum with a special prison shank display.
Haystack is a cellphone, internet black hole. So that means no phone calls, no internet, no weather report, no GPS, no nothing. Let me tell you that is was VERY hard for me to go without for that long. I am sure people would pay good money for it. I would be happy to smash their cell phones for them. It made me realize now how crucial technology is to my studio practice and my life. Even more so when it fails I get unbelievably upset. I want to call my cell phone company and get a two week credit on my bill. What really pissed me off was that voicemail's and text messages would come in sporadically depending on where I was standing. I had a couple of interesting broken up voice mails that were like. "Hello Arthur this is Dr so and so... your blood work came back and .......BZZZZZZZZZZ......call me back when you have a minute thanks." "Hello Arthur...its about your cat he...BZZZZZZZZZZZ....call me back as soon as you get this." "Hello Arthur this is the Dean, I need to meet with you tomorrow its about...BZZZZZZZZZ.... call me back as soon as you can." It was pure torture. I just had to shut off my phone. It was terribly annoying.
Besides that I think the workshop went over pretty well. There is something about teaching a workshop that is almost therapeutic. No grades. No papers. No advising. Man it just breaks it down to the basics. Making.
I pretty sure I had an out of body experience being there. It is kind of hard to explain what happened. I am sure I will not do it justice. So I will just post the photos.
Sadly, while we were away one of our cats got out and ran away. I am sure he just missed us terribly and couldn't stand it anymore. For those of you around the Hudson Valley if you see our buddy please let us know. We are terribly heart broken. If sighted please call me immediately 804-787-4887
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